Gree Debuts at Tokyo Game Show

At this year’s Tokyo Game Show, one of the best locations on the exhibition floor was occupied by a company participating in Japan’s biggest annual videogame trade show for the first time.

Associated Press

Gree’s both at the Tokyo Game Show on Sept. 15.

The presence of Gree Inc., one of Japan’s biggest mobile gaming services, at the show was also symbolic of the times, in which the growing popularity of social games played on Apple Inc.’s iPhone and other smartphones are forcing traditional game console makers to rethink their strategies.

Adding to the symbolism, Gree’s booth was right next to Sony Corp.’s PlayStation section.

Gree’s light blue company logo was highly visible at the mostly white walls at the booth, and on white paper bags Gree was giving out to visitors.

Still, even though Gree’s massively popular service boasts over 25 million users in Japan, the company’s booth at the show wasn’t exactly overrun: in the special surroundings of the Tokyo Game Show, perhaps an opportunity to play social games on mobile phones — an everyday occurence for many — wasn’t an enormous draw. Visitors could play some of new games offered on Gree’s mobile service at the booth, but the tryout sections weren’t very crowded.

Instead, the busiest section at the show was the Sony PlayStation booth, where the Japanese electronics and entertainment giant exhibited its upcoming new handheld game machine, the PlayStation Vita.

Visitors formed long queues to get their hands on the Vita, which will debut Dec. 17 in Japan, ahead of any other markets in the world, along with 26 software titles. The waiting time for some of the Vita game tryouts was more than two hours.

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